STANDARD
Israeli authorities have released infographics, drone footage and voice recordings they say prove they did not attack a hospital in Gaza.
A blast at al-Ahli Baptist Hospital on Tuesday has killed more than 500 people, the Gaza Health Ministry estimates, and harrowing imagery has shown this number includes multiple children.
This was the deadliest single event of the current conflict so far.
Hamas has blamed an Israeli airstrike, but the Israeli military claims the site was hit with a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) militant group – which has also denied involvement.
The spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, held a news conference on Wednesday to lay out what he said was evidence his country’s claims are true.
In a recording which Israel describes as an intercepted call, Admiral Hagari said you can hear “terrorists talking about rockets misfiring”.
According to an English transcript published by the IDF, one man says: “I’m telling you this is the first time that we see a missile like this falling and so that’s why we are saying it belongs to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
Another one replies “What? It’s from us? Who says this?”
Before the other explains “that the shrapnel from the missile is local shrapnel and not like Israeli shrapnel” before he adding: “But God Bless, it couldn’t have found another place to explode?”
The audio and the transcript have not been independently verified.
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The IDF’s English transcription of what it says was an intercepted phone call between PIJ militants
IDF
Israel claims that rockets fired by militant groups often fail, with Admiral Hagari telling reporters that, as of Tuesday, roughly 450 had missed their target and accidentally landed in Gaza during the conflict.
He showed the press a map of what he said highlighted the locations of these failed launches – also not independently verified.
Admiral Hagari went on to make the argument that there were no Israeli aircraft operating in the area of the hospital at the time it was hit.
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THE IDF’S INFOGRAPHIC PURPORTING TO SHOW THE PATHS OF ISLAMIC JIHAD ROCKETS PASSING OVER THE HOSPITAL AT THE TIME OF THE EXPLOSION
